NFL Makes Last-Ditch Offer to Refs

The NFL Referees Union has until today to consider a new offer by the league before replacements are assigned to work the opening week of the regular season.

The NFL increased its offer to the locked-out officials Wednesday but rejected a call by the union for arbitration in a 30-minute meeting. Then union negotiator Tom Condon flew home to Kansas City. He was scheduled to discuss the offer in a conference call late Wednesday night with the union’s four-member executive committee--Ed Hochuli, Bill Carollo, Jeff Bergman and Ben Montgomery.

The NFL offer includes a 60% increase in salaries this year, compared with the 40% jump in the NFL’s last offer. But the rest of the package remains the same, with officials’ salaries doubled by 2003.

Even the new offer is far below what the union has demanded.

Hochuli, the association’s president, told Fox Sports that he believed the board would reject the offer and the replacement officials would work this weekend.